


wards and titles

by Rhiannon87



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Siblings, friendly sibling rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 14:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9496124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhiannon87/pseuds/Rhiannon87
Summary: After Vox Machina returns from the Feywild, Cassandra has a few questions for her older brother. Set during the first half of Episode 64.





	

The wards had held. That was the primary thought echoing through Cassandra’s mind as she sank into the chair behind her desk and cradled her head in her hands. The wards _held._ One of the dragons had flown overhead, and Whitestone had remained undetected. Her city and her people would live another day.

Percy was right, they needed more fortified hiding places under the city, but for now… For now, everyone had survived. Given the circumstances, she’d take it.

“Cass?”

Speak of the devil. She raised her head and looked to the door, where Percy was leaning in with a small, worried frown. “Yes, come on in.”

“Are you all right?” He stepped inside and shut the door. He still looked exhausted and in desperate need of a bath, but he’d at least had the courtesy to leave his filth-caked coat and boots somewhere else.

She let out a dry, mirthless chuckle. “Couldn’t be better,” she replied. “You?”

“Feeling like I could sleep for a week.” Percy shook his head and collapsed into the armchair on the other side of the desk. “Near-misses with dragons really get the blood pumping.”

Cass shook her head and scrubbed a hand over her face. “Indeed they do.” Once was more than enough for her. With any luck, the beast would have seen an empty valley and thus would have no interest in returning. They had powerful allies here now, and a growing military force, but a dragon attack would ruin Whitestone. For good. That couldn’t be allowed to happen.

Percy pushed his glasses up as he pressed his fingers to his eyes momentarily. “But at least Pike managed to get my memories of the last week back,” he said, “so, you know, that’s something.”

“Your memories…?”

“Side effect of leaving the Feywild, it seems,” Percy replied with a shrug. “Grog and I forgot everything, until Pike fixed it.” A fond smile quirked his lips. “She’s quite good at that.”

“She is.” Cass hadn’t spent much time around the cleric--Pike had been occupied with the wards, and more to the point, she didn’t particularly want to court a sermon on redemption and second chances. Maybe someday. But Sarenrae’s message wasn’t one Cass wanted to hear just yet. “How was the Feywild?”

Percy laughed and shook his head, his gaze unfocusing as he thought. “Every bit as bizarre as the books promised and then some,” he said. “I went blind for a bit because Keyleth picked a flower. We had to steal a hat for a saytr. I may have flirted with a sentient field of grass?”

In spite of everything, Cass burst into giggles at the last part. “A field of grass, brother? Really?”

“If we wed, the bride and the ceremony location can be one and the same,” Percy replied with a grin. And for a moment, the weight of everything--the dragons, the rebuilding, the horrible broken years of loss between them--lifted, and Cass let herself laugh with her big brother.

“Speaking of the Feywild,” she said after a few moments. “And since you’re here.” She stood up and went to the shelves along the wall, scanning for a particular tome.

“Right.” Percy sighed. “The barony.”

“Is it just Vex’ahlia, or did you hand out titles to all of your friends?” Cass found the large, dusty book she wanted and hauled it down, dropping it on the desk with a thump.

Percy shook his head. “Just her.”

Cassandra resisted the urge to shoot him a knowing look. He’d just clam up if she did, and she’d never get the full story. “So how did that come about?” she asked instead as she began paging through the city records.

“Parts of it are rather complicated, but mostly--her father’s an asshole and a bureaucrat in Syngorn, and I wanted to…” Percy trailed off for a moment, brow furrowed as he picked his words. “To make her feel better, I suppose. And to make him choke on the fact that his daughter’s better-titled than he is.”

“Just his daughter,” Cassandra said as she flipped to the correct page. “Why not title Vax’ildan as well? Wouldn’t that have been twice as upsetting for him?”

Percy cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “He has obligations elsewhere already,” he said. “Religious ones.”

Cassandra planted her hands on either side of the book and leaned over the desk. “You didn’t even think of giving him a title, did you.”

He made a face at her. “Do I need to sign anything?” he asked, looking at the book.

He did, but Cassandra wasn’t going to let him put pen to paper until she was done with her questions. “You like her, don’t you?”

Two spots of color appeared on Percy’s cheeks, for all that he tried to affect a calm facade. “I like all of them,” he said. “They’re my friends.”

“But you _like_ her,” Cass said, dragging the word out a little bit.

Percy gave her a flat stare. “We all always thought you were a total brat, you know.”

She just raised an eyebrow. “Youngest of seven, Percival,” she replied. “How could I be anything else?” With that, she sat back down and folded her arms across the book, smirking at him. “So. You like her, right?”

“Will you please let me sign the book so I can take a bath and then sleep for twelve hours?” Percy whined. “There was the whole dragon thing, and before that I had to fight the Feywild’s most obsessive jilted lover for a magic bow. I am _tired_.”

“And rather in love, apparently,” Cass said. “Giving away titles to make a girl happy. Most men would go for flowers, you know.”

Percy sighed and sank back into the chair. “Cass, please, just…” He sighed and rubbed his face again, the sarcastic, arrogant mask slipping just enough for her to see traces of the boy she remembered from their childhood. “It’s never going to go anywhere. It’s terrible and complicated and I beg you to not breathe a word of this to another soul.”

Cass considered him for a few moments, then sat up and nodded. “All right,” she agreed. “I’ll keep your secret. But for the record, I think you’re being very dumb about this.”

“So do I.” He held out his hand, the mask firmly back in place. “Pen?”

She handed it over and turned the book to face him. He filled in Vex’s name and full title, then scrawled his own across the bottom of the page. “There,” he said. “Baroness of a half-empty crypt and very little else, but it’s something.”

“Maybe try flowers next time,” Cassandra suggested as she turned the book back to add her own signature. She wasn’t sure if it was entirely necessary, but it couldn’t hurt.

“Actually, she far prefers arrows.” Percy smiled and stood, rolling his shoulders with a wince. “And now that that’s done, I’m going to go sleep. We’ll be down for breakfast, but otherwise--”

“I’ll make sure you’re left alone.”

Percy stopped in the door and looked back at her. “Thank you, Cass. Truly.”

She shooed him out of the room. “Go to bed, brother.”


End file.
